Once upon a time I had a brief stint as a shoe designer, and in addition to that I run a small niche market shoe business (Jika-Tabi.com ). So I happen to know a lot about shoes and perhaps I have somewhat high standards of some sort. So when I went looking for a soft-sole shoes replacement for my old Acorn slippers I had something rather specific in mind. Before I discovered jika-tabi during the summer of 1998 I used to wear moccasins all the time, but I didn't like the typical loafer design because the damn things slip around and off. I used to buy shoes from thrift stores, remove the soles, and then sew on soft leather soles myself. It looks like I'm going to have to do that again because soft-soled shoes still seem to be only available as pseudo native American styled loafers.

Well, there are actually a couple of exceptions to this: Old Friend's bootie, Minnetonka's fringed ankle and thigh boots, and Acorn's fleece or wool sock slippers. The Old Friend bootie is very insulated and looks a lot like Tibetan footwear, so it's only good for the winter. Minnetonka's whole like is, as the name suggests, geared towards the whole Native American cliché. Fringes, seriously? The Acorn fleece with leather bottom slippers have served me well for several years and so I could replace them and maintain the status quo. But what I'd like is something more like a real shoe that happens to have a soft bottom.

Maybe you're thinking (and if you know me then you probably are thinking) that if I have tabi and jika-tabi, which are cotton and soft rubber bottomed, then what do I need these slippers for? Good question. Sometimes I'm relaxing at home wearing the indoor cotton bottomed tabi and I went to step outside to get the mail or take out the garbage or something. I don't want to change shoes; I just want to slip something over my tabi to go outside. But enough about me. I can't believe that everybody who wants some soft-soled shoes (like for driving, or chilling at home, or just to have comfortable shoes) wants them to look like stereotyped throwbacks to the reservation or split-toed ninja boots. There must be room for some decent shoes that happen to have soft bottoms. I can't find them. If you know of any then please let me know. In the meantime I guess I'm back to buying some Minnetonka fringed ankle boots and restyling them to my own desires.